What have you done to your car today?

There's more done to it now than that post there :)

Acme said:
Wait wait wait, whats going on under the bonnet? For some reason I always assumed yours was visual mods and bolt ons only!
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:D

The powertrain mods are:
  • BBR (AT Power) 42mm shaftless ITB conversion (with DBW throttle actuator and 3D printed ram pipe extensions)
  • BBR custom made plenum, fed by a modified factory air filter housing (now with 3 inch MAF tube) containing a K&N high flow panel filter
  • Supertech uprated valve springs
  • Supertech Ti valve spring retainers
  • BBR Super 200 spec uprated camshafts
  • Custom tune by BBR using Ecutek software
  • Racing Beat 4-1 stainless exhaust manifold
  • BBR 2.5 inch midpipe with 200 cell sports cat
  • BBR 'GT' exhaust silencer (a bit too quiet for me, may replace this soon)
  • Modified breather/PCV system with a catch tank (which seems to fill up loads now its cold)
  • Competition clutch lightweight flywheel (5.35kg, stock is 7.??)
  • Odula RS intake scoop (this is totally hidden away behind the front bumper and slam panel but essentially its a big scoop to take cold air from behind the grill, and channel it straight into the factory air filter housing)

The scoop you can't see is like this...

miP8Ziz.jpg


The painted cam cover is just because it looks good :D

Here's the dyno chart:

Wm3zHPU.jpg


Power (with the airbox installed as per the picture above) is 220.9bhp, 175.6lb ft of torque.

Power (if I binned off the airbox and ran a motorsport style filter over the trumpets) is apparently 227.9bhp, 181.8lb ft, from the other line on the graph. That's with the car running with the bonnet open mind, and fans.

In reality, I think that bonnet down, on the road, I'd be sucking in rather warmer air that may well reduce that power figure - the ducted airbox setup I run now may show less power on the dyno, but in use as a road car it might actually be better since it guarantees the engine is breathing cold air rather than warm... The airbox setup I have does massively reduce the intake noise mind, its more sociable but I sometimes wish it had more roar to it :D.

The PCV and vacuum setup would need altering too, as well as the tune, if I got rid of the airbox, and the airbox that is on there is not simple to remove either due to the design of it. I have a pipercross px600 backplate and C602D filter to hand though, if I was to go for a motorsports style filter setup.
 
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Niiiiiiiiiiice Will! :D

I loved it before, but now I love it even more...

220HP N/A with ITB's... Got any videos, sound clips? ;)
 
wedrum said:
winter tyres makes me laugh.
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An mx5 on Yokohama AD08Rs in snow would make me laugh even more, until I failed to get where I was going or bounced the car off the nearest solid object :(

Running winters from late Nov to Late Feb is just a bit of insurance if it does get really bad. I accept that the AD08rs are probably better most of the time.
 
Winter tyres aren't just for snow, their compounds are actually superior at ambient temperatures below 7-8', regardless of weather condition. I did run winter tyres last year (they came on the car when I bought it) and even with the mild temperatures they performed admirably.

I have normal summer tyres this year, so we'll see how that goes up in the Peaks and "compare" the two.
 
Ive been driving my MX5 around in the cold and rain on Proxes T1R's, admittedly it has almost 100 less pony's, but it has stuck its bum out a couple of times... :p

Its quite strange, I've always thought of the NC MX5 as being much bigger than my NB, and in pictures it does look much bigger, but in reality it is only a few CM here and there.

I haven't parked next to an NC yet.
 
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Will, your car really as good as it gets as far as an NC for me, only makes 30bhp/30lbft less than mine as well and is going to be a whole lot more driveable than mine too


wedrum said:
winter tyres makes me laugh.
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As Will said, when you run a tyre like AD08R winter tyres make rather a lot of sense. As soon as my spare wheels come back from being on loan to a mate I will be buying a set of winter tyres to manage grip better for the winter months, I have to think quite hard about throttle application this time of year
 
I emailed these guys about this kit out of sheer curiosity, and they said that on an NB 1.8 combined with a free flowing exhaust, it might see a 45HP increase. (Taking it to 165HP because apparently the '140HP' 1.8's actually have around 120HP.)

http://www.blinkmotorsport.com/?page_id=302

£1980 for a drive in drive out. Quite pricey when you consider what £2K could get you with the turbo route.
 
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Will said:
N4AcWux.jpg
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:cool:, :cool::cool::cool:

Looks clean enough to eat off.

I think your car sits really well, everything is just right, from the wheels on how they fill the arches to the overall aesthetic. It looks pretty damn masculine, which is usually a strong feat for an MX5 as they're usually all rounded and cute looking :p
 
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Acme said:
I emailed these guys about this kit out of sheer curiosity, and they said that on an NB 1.8 combined with a free flowing exhaust, it might see a 45HP increase. (Taking it to 165HP because apparently the '140HP' 1.8's actually have around 120HP.

http://www.blinkmotorsport.com/?page_id=302
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Applies to most cars though. 3k for headwork and cams or the same money for a good turbo kit and most of the supporting mods
 
That is true. If the time comes, I have no idea which route I'd take. Some N/A work would be more usable, but turbo MX5's are mad... :D
 
My pa and I went after the headlight wiring on his Landy today. After a bit of faffing, drilling, cutting, splicing and clamping...we now have actual working lighting at the front of the car for the first time ever.

v6rs6t.jpg

We adapted a Boomslang replacement loom made for a Defender. The Series cars are a bit different at the front so we had to cut holes to get a short enough path for the loom to run, and since the original headlight wiring was utterly maimed we had to be a tiny bit creative about how we got the dim/dip switch wired to it. At the same time we fitted new headlamp mounts as the old ones were trash - now we can actually aim the headlights properly.
 
Thanks for the positive comments guys :)

Acme said:
I emailed these guys about this kit out of sheer curiosity, and they said that on an NB 1.8 combined with a free flowing exhaust, it might see a 45HP increase. (Taking it to 165HP because apparently the '140HP' 1.8's actually have around 120HP.)

http://www.blinkmotorsport.com/?page_id=302

£1980 for a drive in drive out. Quite pricey when you consider what £2K could get you with the turbo route.
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The Blink package is excellent and they are a really good outfit to deal with, not the biggest or flashiest 'tuner' out there, but they know the MX5 really well. I think you really have to *want* to stay naturally aspirated for their package (or the parts that I've fitted) to make sense though, if its just a numbers game then adding boost is the way forward.

For some the appeal of an mx5 is the light weight, the simplicity of the thing (relatively low grip, lots of feedback, balance over outright pace, and the whole roof down experience), and staying NA keeps the linear response to suit - throttle bodies just sharpening it up, adding a bit more sharpness, noise and character to the car.

If I was starting over though, I'd find it hard to resist the Rotrex based supercharger kit that Blink sell (developed by Corten Miller), now that drives just like it has a bigger engine - the rotrex supercharger gives a very linear power delivery (as the boost rises at a linear rate as engine rpm increases) and still means you have to rev the car out to access the power, with no lag or hesitancy. The cost to convert would probably end up being in the same ballpark as what I've spent on mine. I drove their demo car with 290bhp the other week, that level of power in the mk3 with ohlins suspension is an absolute blast.
 
Received my replacement front number plate after mine got washed away in some 'deeper than I thought' flood waters (i.e. water coming over the front). Last time I go driving down roads I've never been before, certainly the last trip to Penmark, anyway!
 
Greg0986 said:
Jesus! 197 by any chance? Where they budget tyres?
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Yeah 197 and not too sure tbh. Was my brother's car I was just borrowing it for the day whilst mine was in garage.

After it happened he did say he'd noticed a gouge in the tyre but didn't think anything of it:rolleyes: happened on a dual carriageway 'A' road which for your typical Saturday afternoon was quite busy but luckily me and the car were okay.
 
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